Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

A few minutes ago, as I was biting into a taco, I learned that EPA administrator Scott Pruitt had finally resigned after accumulating a truly astonishing array of weird, penny-ante scandals over the past 18 months. By chance, I had just read an AP piece about life in Donald Trump’s cabinet, where I learned how the president had handled Pruitt’s troublesome behavior at a recent meeting. Here you go:

Agency head Scott Pruitt caught a sharp admonition from Trump to “knock it off” after his ethics problems dominated cable television.

That’s leadership! And check out Pruitt’s resignation letter:

Truly, your confidence in me has blessed me personally…. I count it a blessing to be serving you in any capacity…. My desire in service to you has always been to bless you as you make important decisions for the American people…. I pray as I have served you that I have blessed you and enabled you to effectively lead the American people.

I still haven’t quite figured out Pruitt. His endless little scandals are just so…weird. What’s the right word to describe them? It’s like he was living some bizarre kindergarten version of corporate perkdom. He obviously thought his elevation to Trump’s cabinet entitled him to be treated like an especially fair-haired Fortune 500 CEO, but in practice he acted like a guy who had never set foot in a corporation and had heard only gauzy, faraway stories about CEO perks—and not even understood those very well. What a strange man.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate